Daily Articles

The Price of Liberty and the Cost of War

by Jeffrey A. Singer July 1, 2002

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, ...

Book Review: After Liberalism

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2002

After Liberalism: Mass Democracy in the Managerial State by Paul Edward Gottfried (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001); 185 pages; $35. IN THE 1960s, Friedrich A. Hayek published a monograph entitled The Confusion of Language in Political Thought. He emphasized that one of the greatest difficulties in clarifying and arguing for the idea of freedom is the misuse and abuse of ...

Economic Liberty and the Constitution, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |  Table of Contents IN 1905, the constitutionality of Joseph Lochner’s criminal conviction by the ...

The World’s Poor Lose a Friend

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2002

On May 2 the best friend of the world’s poor died at home in London. Peter Bauer was 86 and had just been named winner of the first Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, awarded by the Cato Institute. Never heard of Peter Bauer? That’s because his analysis of poverty ...

A Positive Development in the War on Terrorism

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2002

There might be one positive development arising from the U.S. government’s reaction to its failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks. The Washington Post reported today (May 29) that “the FBI will shift 480 agents from drug and other criminal investigations to counterterrorism posts....” Doesn’t that imply that if FBI agents weren’t spending their time prosecuting ...

Rights Belong to Individuals

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2002

If you want insight into the mentality of the intellectual elite, observe the hysterical reaction to the Bush administration’s declaration that the right to keep and bear arms is — horror! — an individual right. In two U.S. Supreme Court briefs filed by the Justice Department on May 6, Solicitor General ...

Liberty, Property, and Automobiles

by Bart Frazier June 1, 2002

The Board of Supervisors in Fairfax County, Va., recently passed a measure that limits the portion of a home’s front yard that can be paved for a driveway to 25 percent (30 percent for very small lots) and also prohibits parking on the homeowner’s grass. Why are too many ...

No Bailout for Amtrak

by Bart Frazier June 1, 2002

Once again, Amtrak is in dire need of our tax dollars. Without a cash infusion, Amtrak president David Gunn said it will have to halt operations. Negotiations are now underway that will provide a guaranteed “loan” (read: subsidy) to the railroad. The question that no one seems to ...

Economic Liberty and the Constitution (Table of Contents)

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2002

  Part 1 (June 2002) Introduction Part 2 (July 2002) The Declaration of Independence; judicial review Part 3 (August 2002) The influence of Adam Smith Part 4 (September 2002) The Slaughter-House Cases Part 5 (October ...

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Classical-Liberal Alternative

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 2002

A MAN IS WALKING through the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland, late one night. Suddenly there is an arm around his throat and he is pulled into a dark alley. A gun is then put to his head and the voice behind him asks, Be yeh a Protestant or be yeh a Catholic? Thinking fast, the man replies, Im ...

What Is the Constitution?

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2002

JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA is probably the smartest man on the Supreme Court. That makes him a living example of how bad political and philosophical premises can put great talent in the service of an evil cause, namely, the destruction of individual liberty. In November, while speaking at the University of Missouri, Scalia was asked what he thought about proposals to ...

What Is the Constitution?

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2002

JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA is probably the smartest man on the Supreme Court. That makes him a living example of how bad political and philosophical premises can put great talent in the service of an evil cause, namely, the destruction of individual liberty.